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Fall Trip in the South- Part 1

Fall Road Trip to the South, Louisville, KY Part One

Have you ever had a bucket list item that you so very much want to complete, but can’t remember when you put it on your bucket list or why? I do! I have wanted for a very long time to visit every single State in the United States. Thankfully, I have been very fortunate to travel all over both by plane and car, and have visited 45 of the 50 states! Yeah! To get through that many states, you have to plan in quite a few driving trips. Last year I decided to take a Mom and daughter Fall Road Trip in the South and today I am sharing Part One, Louisville, KY. During the trip we had a lot of good times, lots of laughs, an enormous amount of fried chicken, and checked 6 states off our list!

My daughter Torianna started traveling a little later in life. You can read more about foster adopt and Tori’s beginning in a recent post here. Tori used to be a homebody and preferred to stay home instead of travel, but I invited her on this trip, and she was up for the challenge! At the time she was home schooled, so she could travel in the Fall, and of course she was very excited that when we stopped in Kentucky, her older sister Victoria would drive down from Ohio to see us for the day!

We Planned the Trip Together

When we started planning the trip, I asked Tori if there is anything that she wanted to do specifically, and she said she wanted to go to a natural history museum and an Insectarium. I will share more in Part two about the Insectarium.  I was not sure I would have put either of those on my list, but when you travel together, you choose to enjoy what other people enjoy, and hope they will enjoy your ideas as well!

In late October we flew into Louisville, Kentucky. We arrived late at night and met my Oldest Daughter Victoria at the hotel. Thankfully, most of the hotels were paid for with travel reward points. If you are not currently a loyalty member with your favorite brands, you should join! I have spent at least 50 free nights in hotels, flown thousands of miles for free, and rented months of cars for free thanks to generous loyalty plans. My three favorites are Hilton Honors, Southwest Airlines, and Enterprise Car Rentals.

Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory

After a night of chatting and hugs, we awoke and drove to the Louisville Slugger Museum. I must say that we are not particularly a baseball fan family, but we are a family that loves factories! We truly enjoyed our tour through the factory and the free mini bat that we received upon finishing the tour. We then toured the museum, learned a great deal about bats and baseball, timed our own “fast balls” at the throwing booth, and of course, took time for some fun photo ops!

Victoria with the Baseball Players

If you do enjoy baseball, you will love the gift shop, as well as all of the interactive exhibits. There is a great deal of history shared, and at the time there was a cool Lego exhibit of many of the baseball stadiums around the country to walk through. If you are going there you definitely should take a pic in front of the huge bat outside the front of the factory. You will never have the opportunity to pose in front of a bat that big again in your life! lol

Fall Road Trip to the South, Louisville, KY Part One

Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby

Next we headed over to Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum. It was so worth the time and cost! We loved looking at all of the interactive exhibits, and the amazing number of photo ops! There is an amazing movie shown in the round that better expresses race day than anything I could imagine. I believe everyone, whether a race fan or not, was in tears by the end. It is a really beautiful thing to see the dedication of the teams that create these amazing races, and of course the beauty of the horses.

Fall Road Trip to the South, Louisville, KY Part One

We were able to tour the paddock and see the current jockeys and horses going out for their race, and then we walked up into the grandstand. When we walked out to the grandstand and looked out on the race track I was in awe! It is a huge race track! It seemed so surreal after years of watching the race, to finally be standing there, hearing the thundering of the horses giving the race their all.

Derby Pie

After we finished the tour and of course a long stop at the gift shop, we ventured to a local pie and ice cream shop. I had heard that Derby Pie was the state pie of Kentucky, and thought it would be the perfect day to have some. The girls and I enjoyed a few baked treats, some ice cream, and of course more chatting before we parted ways with my oldest daughter and headed for Nashville, Tennessee which was the next stop on our trip.

Kentucky Derby Pie

As we were driving South, I realized that Kentucky Fried Chicken was probably from Kentucky. Um, yes, it took me a moment. So, we used our exits app to find the next possible sighting of KFC. Sadly, there were none on the horizon, so we stopped at another fast food restaurant. Sadly, the dinner was horrible, and we had to throw it away. As we continued to drive down the highway, we noticed a Sonora, KY sign. Since we are from Sonora, CA we decided to stop and my daughter jumped out and I snapped a pic.

Car Trouble!!!

We pulled back on the highway only to have the car go crazy. It was a rental car and was in like new condition. It was crazy because every single light was flashing, the dashboard was binging and chiming and the engine started to sound as if it were going to fall out of the car! So we found a well lit hotel, pulled over, and called the rental company. In less than a half hour we had the most amazing tow truck driver hoisting our SUV onto the back of a flatbed, and my daughter and I were sitting in the warm cab of his huge truck.

You might look at this and think, um, that sounds like your trip is going horribly. Actually, it was a huge blessing. I was super tired at this point because we had stayed up so late the night before. I had been praying that God would help me stay up and drive safely to Nashville where we were to arrive around midnight. So, it was really cool that the tow truck driver did the driving, and I didn’t have to worry. In fact, my daughter Tori fell asleep in the back seat and slept most of the way.

Inside the Tow Truck

Talking with a real life moonshiner!

I of course never like to miss an opportunity to get to know what people think about life in different states. So as we drove along I struck up a conversation with the driver. I had previously read the book Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance, which is primarily about Hillbillies in Kentucky and Ohio. So, I asked if he thought things were the way they were portrayed. To my surprise he opened up and said yes. He shared about family, money, drugs, challenges, and of course moonshine.

The pride that shone on his face in the glow of the dashboard lights as he shared about his recipe for moonshine. He took joy in sharing the legacy that he was working to create for his family, it was so beautiful. It was different than me. Different than anyone I had ever met. But, it was beautiful. I was so thankful that my car broke down that night. Not just because it meant someone else was driving to Nashville. But because it meant I was able to connect with someone who I would have never met otherwise.

We arrived at the airport, changed out to a different car, said goodbye to our driver. Next we headed to the hotel. We never really had dinner that night. And sadly, we completely missed out on eating Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky Still, would not change a single moment of the first days of our trip.

Louisville Slugger Museum

Our First Day Came to an End

The first day of our trip was certainly eventful! Not everything went as planned, but everything was fully worth the time and money. As my daughter and I fell asleep that night we thought about the time we had shared with my daughter Victoria. We thought about the days ahead, and mostly, how awesome it felt to be safe in a comfortable bed and ready to sleep the night away!

Thanks for reading some of my favorite memories from my Fall Trip to the South- Part One. I will share Part -Two soon, so keep an eye out for it. In the meantime, share one of your favorite vacation memories in the comments below.

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Fall Road Trip to the South, Louisville, KY Part One